Abraham moved from Canaan to Tanais/Tanis or Mitzraim/Mitzrayim which was by the river of Egypt or more possibly the Nile. He stayed there a while, about 5 years according to Jubilees before entering into Egypt. I’m not sure how terrible a famine is as I have never lived through one, but I would imagine that for Abraham to move his whole house away from Canaan, it would have to be awful. When Sarah was found by Pharaoh’s men, and taken to Pharaoh, it looked like it could have been a disastrous situation for God’s promises. But God hears her prayer and sends an Angel to protect her. At this time Egyptian society did not look down on women, but women were well respected in all aspects of society as equal intelligence bringing a proper balance to their most advanced culture.
Jasher 15:1And in that year there was a heavy famine throughout the land of Canaan, and the inhabitants of the land could not remain on account of the famine for it was very grievous. 2 And Abram and all belonging to him rose and went down to Egypt on account of the famine, and when they were at the brook Mitzraim they remained there some time to rest from the fatigue of the road. 3 And Abram and Sarai were walking at the border of the brook Mitzraim, and Abram beheld his wife Sarai that she was very beautiful. 4 And Abram said to his wife Sarai, Since God has created thee with such a beautiful countenance, I am afraid of the Egyptians lest they should slay me and take thee away, for the fear of God is not in these places. 5 Surely then thou shalt do this, Say thou art my sister to all that may ask thee, in order that it may be well with me, and that we may live and not be put to death. 6 And Abram commanded the same to all those that came with him to Egypt on account of the famine; also his nephew Lot he commanded, saying, If the Egyptians ask thee concerning Sarai say she is the sister of Abram. 7 And yet with all these orders Abram did not put confidence in them, but he took Sarai and placed her in a chest and concealed it amongst their vessels, for Abram was greatly concerned about Sarai on account of the wickedness of the Egyptians. 8 And Abram and all belonging to him rose up from the brook Mitzraim and came to Egypt; and they had scarcely entered the gates of the city when the guards stood up to them saying, Give tithe to the king from what you have, and then you may come into the town; and Abram and those that were with him did so.
Before we continue we have to explore the idea that at this time in history Egypt was a Matriarchal society. Matriarchal societies are not the opposite of Patriarchal societies, female dominated as compared to male dominated societies. They are in fact a more equal distribution of leadership and power between men and women. Patriarchal societies are male dominated and male run, and women are considered a lower status. In Matriarchal society’s women were teachers, spiritual teachers that lead their own children to think and be creative and inventive. What we have learned is that women had as much power and authority in their society for many years, even after Abraham and Sarah left. Hatshepsut was one of the most successful pharaohs in Egypt ruling around 1508-1458 BC. Abraham was in Egypt around 2400-2300 BC so we know that their society was honoring of women when Abraham was there. At the time of the death of King Tut, Egypt was in the process of changing to a Patriarchal society and the leadership and rulership of women in Egypt was erased from Egypt’s history. Women like Hatshepsut, Merneith, Nimaethap, Nitocris, and Cleopatra VII, were either forgotten by history or made out to be sultry harlots with little intelligence. I previously wrote about the cult of domesticity, which was a Patriarchal plan to eliminate women from positions of authority in North American society. Interestingly though, Gloria Steinem was financially supported by the Rockefellers in the late 60’s early 70’s women’s liberation movement. Curiously there may be a reason for that. Because higher knowledge has to include the masculine and the feminine, many people today realize that unless we cultivate the feminine again into America, we will not be a leader and innovator in the world. History shows us civilizations that died out under Patriarchy because those societies are dominators, warring and starting wars to overtake other countries.
Gen 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. KJV
Gen 5:1-2 This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; 2 Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created. KJV
God created man after his own image, which is male and female. Elohim, plural in the Hebrew, again meaning three or more, is male and female. Some of our best examples of the female side of God is written in Psalms and Proverbs. But we see all throughout the Hebrew that the Holy Spirit, is written in the feminine case. It is also feminine in the Aramaic, not until the Latin did the Holy Spirit become referred to as masculine, and in the Greek, the Holy Spirit was made neutral. Now I have to add that when you hear someone talk about the Holy Spirit from the New Testament as masculine, the error is in the translation, as the Aramaic translates the Holy Spirit in the feminine case. So weather you wish to argue that the writers of the bible Old and New Testament were Jews, writing in Hebrew, or Jews writing in Aramaic, the feminine gender is still used. Only when we translate to Greek, later Latin and then into King James English do we see the feminine change to the masculine. I find it interesting that the Greek language changed the gender of the Holy Spirit, could it be because they were a Patriarchal society?
Language is interesting isn’t it? It is totally dictated by society, in a Matriarchal society there is no problem with the understanding that God is male and female, or that the Holy Spirit is written in Hebrew in the feminine. However in a Patriarchal society there cannot be a feminine aspect of the Godhead. Patriarchal leadership oppresses the feminine and the spiritual. Male domination requires male only leadership at all costs. Therefore by the time the Latin versions were written, prejudice was interpreted into the text to change the Hebrew gender. I used to teach this at my male dominated church in 1998, albeit more extensively, and I’m sure you’ve guessed how well that went over. Monica Dennington did a great teaching called the homosexual pulpit, not homosexuals in the pulpit but a male dominated church, as well as on the feminine Holy Spirit. I’ll leave her website in the end notes.
All men and women were created to have some male characteristics and some female characteristics. We then individually develop those aspects of our personalities accordingly. Yet in a Patriarchal culture, the feminine aspects are regarded as less important, thereby putting more emphasis on the masculine traits. That causes a great imbalance in a society. In Egyptian culture they understood that there was a sacred feminine and a sacred masculine as taught by Dr Carmen Boulter of the University of Calgary in her series The Pyramid Code. Feminine consciousness corresponds to the right hemisphere of the brain, which controls the left side of the body, and the Masculine consciousness is the opposite, the left side of the brain and controlling the right side of the body. Patriarchal consciousness relates to history, linear time, dogma, rationality, waking reality, and science. While Matriarchal consciousness has a focus of eternity, cycles of time, ritual, magic, altered states, and art. When a society becomes imbalanced as our culture is today, we lose our spirituality and our understanding of God and our personal relationship and experience with God is lost. What we do to try to “conjure” a Godly experience is build our world in the physical, but the physical alone cannot bring us to God.
For example, we should look at the tabernacle. We have the outer court, the inner court and the holy of holies. In the outer and inner courts we have stations of rituals for the priests, the altar of sacrifice, the laver, the lampstand the shew bread, the altar of incense. In each of these things there is symbolism and rituals must be preformed. In the Holy of Holies, which was only for the high priest to enter and only once per year with the blood sacrifices of all the people we have an interesting phenomena. As taught recently by Perry Stone, the high priest would go into the holy of holies and speak in another language, a prayer language. When the high priest would leave he could no longer speak in that prayer language. This was an understanding passed down in history that the rabbi’s had. The summation is that the high priests would speak in tongues, just as we do today, by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. But we need to have the Holy Spirit to have a spiritual experience. Unless of course someone wishes to have a demonic spiritual experience that is an altogether different story. People used to say that the spiritual and the physical go hand in hand, so that if your sock drawer was messy, your spiritual life would be messy. I find that a little silly in that if the physical is out of order we should be able to train ourselves to hear from the Holy Spirit who indwells us anyway. What if there was a military attack at our place of employment, our physical would be out of order but our spiritual is still available to be connected to. And in a time of crisis, we want to be able to connect spiritually with God for direction. On the one hand we can perform the rituals, but not everyone gets the personal relationship with God in the Holy of Holies, and on the other hand we can always have the relationship and spiritual connection, apart from having the perfect physical conditions, in other words live in the Holy of Holies. So then it is understandable that we have to develop that side of our being the feminine side of our personality, to connect with God. Really we should always be in constant communion with the Holy Spirit all day long but our Patriarchal society doesn’t promote that.
Throughout history we can see, if we take the 30,000 mile high view, how dominate Patriarchy changes societies. In the once advanced Egyptian culture, the priesthood became a money making opportunity and wars ravaged the country until Egypt became culturally insignificant. Greek civilization rose up, dominated and conquered other countries but eventually imploded. The Greeks regarded women lower than dogs. Women had no rights and were thought to be unintelligent, Eventually the Greek society became progressively unbalanced and homosexuality flourished, due to the lack of the feminine in their society. Fewer children were born as well. When Rome became an up and coming society, they absorbed the religions of the other cultures they conquered, eventually changing their opinions about women as property, and not a complement to men in society. One society that held women in regard until the Romans overtook them was the Israelites. The Israelites had women judges and business women and warriors. Their culture was not threatened by women and they were not upset about Moses’ usage of the feminine for Spirit. We see the Roman influence of male domination and contention in Paul’s writings as we read the one sided conversations regarding hair and head coverings and talking in church. At first glance this seems contradictory, but he is actually speaking into the culture but not by commandment. It was hard to differentiate the new way of Christianity from the old way of Judaism, because as the heathens came into the fold, their culture came with them. Undoing culture is what Paul tries to communicate in his writings, and living by the culture of God is advocated.
Back to Sarah:
9 And Abram with the people that were with him came to Egypt, and when they came they brought the chest in which Sarai was concealed and the Egyptians saw the chest. 10 And the king's servants approached Abram, saying, What hast thou here in this chest which we have not seen? Now open thou the chest and give tithe to the king of all that it contains. 11 And Abram said, This chest I will not open, but all you demand upon it I will give. And Pharaoh's officers answered Abram, saying, It is a chest of precious stones, give us the tenth thereof. 12 Abram said, All that you desire I will give, but you must not open the chest.13 And the king's officers pressed Abram, and they reached the chest and opened it with force, and they saw, and behold a beautiful woman was in the chest. 14 And when the officers of the king beheld Sarai they were struck with admiration at her beauty, and all the princes and servants of Pharaoh assembled to see Sarai, for she was very beautiful. And the king's officers ran and told Pharaoh all that they had seen, and they praised Sarai to the king; and Pharaoh ordered her to be brought, and the woman came before the king. 15And Pharaoh beheld Sarai and she pleased him exceedingly, and he was struck with her beauty, and the king rejoiced greatly on her account, and made presents to those who brought him the tidings concerning her. 16 And the woman was then brought to Pharaoh's house, and Abram grieved on account of his wife, and he prayed to the Lord to deliver her from the hands of Pharaoh.
Here we see Sarah also prays, God listens to the prayers of Sarah as well.
17 And Sarai also prayed at that time and said, O Lord God thou didst tell my Lord Abram to go from his land and from his father's house to the land of Canaan, and thou didst promise to do well with him if he would perform thy commands; now behold we have done that which thou didst command us, and we left our land and our families, and we went to a strange land and to a people whom we have not known before. 18 And we came to this land to avoid the famine, and this evil accident has befallen me; now therefore, O Lord God, deliver us and save us from the hand of this oppressor, and do well with me for the sake of thy mercy. 19 And the Lord hearkened to the voice of Sarai, and the Lord sent an angel to deliver Sarai from the power of Pharaoh.
Now the King gets involved, remember at this time the King and the Pharaoh are two different people.
20 And the king came and sat before Sarai and behold an angel of the Lord was standing over them, and he appeared to Sarai and said to her, Do not fear, for the Lord has heard thy prayer. 21 And the king approached Sarai and said to her, What is that man to thee who brought thee hither? and she said, He is my brother. 22 And the king said, It is incumbent upon us to make him great, to elevate him and to do unto him all the good which thou shalt command us; and at that time the king sent to Abram silver and gold and precious stones in abundance, together with cattle, men servants and maid servants; and the king ordered Abram to be brought, and he sat in the court of the king's house, and the king greatly exalted Abram on that night. 23 And the king approached to speak to Sarai, and he reached out his hand to touch her, when the angel smote him heavily, and he was terrified and he refrained from reaching to her. 24 And when the king came near to Sarai, the angel smote him to the ground, and acted thus to him the whole night, and the king was terrified. 25 And the angel on that night smote heavily all the servants of the king, and his whole household, on account of Sarai, and there was a great lamentation that night amongst the people of Pharaoh's house. 26 And Pharaoh, seeing the evil that befell him, said, Surely on account of this woman has this thing happened to me, and he removed himself at some distance from her and spoke pleasing words to her. 27 And the king said to Sarai, Tell me I pray thee concerning the man with whom thou camest here; and Sarai said, This man is my husband, and I said to thee that he was my brother for I was afraid, lest thou shouldst put him to death through wickedness. 28 And the king kept away from Sarai, and the plagues of the angel of the Lord ceased from him and his household; and Pharaoh knew that he was smitten on account of Sarai, and the king was greatly astonished at this. 29And in the morning the king called for Abram and said to him, What is this thou hast done to me? Why didst thou say, She is my sister, owing to which I took her unto me for a wife, and this heavy plague has therefore come upon me and my household.30 Now therefore here is thy wife, take her and go from our land lest we all die on her account. And Pharaoh took more cattle, men servants and maid servants, and silver and gold, to give to Abram, and he returned unto him Sarai his wife.
The Angel of the Lord protects Sarah, and then the King gives Sarah his own daughter, Hagar, because the power of the Lord impressed him.
31 And the king took a maiden whom he begat by his concubines, and he gave her to Sarai for a handmaid.32 And the king said to his daughter, It is better for thee my daughter to be a handmaid in this man's house than to be mistress in my house, after we have beheld the evil that befell us on account of this woman. 33 And Abram arose, and he and all belonging to him went away from Egypt; and Pharaoh ordered some of his men to accompany him and all that went with him. 34 And Abram returned to the land of Canaan, to the place where he had made the altar, where he at first had pitched his tent.
Cultures fascinate me; their understanding broadens our perspective in life. My quest is to understand the bible better, from the perspective of the spiritual. The people and the cultures of the bible influenced others just as the other cultures influenced the people in the bible. We next see the contentions of Lot and Abraham and shortly we will dive into Sodom and Gomorrah.
End Notes:
"Lost City" of Tanis Found, but Often Forgotten
Matriarchal
Monica Dennington the homosexual pulpit
